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Lawyer: Department of Justice Shut Down Search For Lois Lerner’s Emails
Daily Caller ^ | 03/03/2015 | Patrick Howley

Posted on 03/03/2015 8:18:02 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

The Department of Justice blocked an attempt to force the Internal Revenue Service to search for Lois Lerner’s missing emails at off-site storage facilities, according to a lawyer pushing to obtain the emails.

The IRS never looked for Lerner’s backup email tapes at the West Virginia storage facility where they were being housed. Treasury deputy inspector general Timothy Camus told Congress that the IRS never asked IT professionals at the New Martinsville, W.V. storage site for the backup tapes. Camus only found the backup tape for Lerner’s missing 2011 emails about two weeks ago.

But the Obama administration knew that emails were stored at off-site facilities, and even shut down a legal request to send somebody to go look for them.

“We said in court that there are off-site servers where all IRS emails are stored,” lawyer Cleta Mitchell told The Daily Caller.

Mitchell represents the voter-ID group True the Vote in its lawsuit against the IRS over improper targeting. Shortly after it was revealed last summer that the IRS was missing Lerner’s emails, Mitchell petitioned U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton for an independent forensic examiner to be appointed to investigate the missing emails.

Mitchell referred to the IRS’ off-site storage facilities in West Virginia and Pittsburgh in court in July. But DOJ lawyers representing the IRS and the Treasury inspector general argued that Mitchell could not even discuss the existence of the storage facilities in her capacity as a lawyer.

“The Department of Justice lawyers objected to that and said I shouldn’t even be allowed to mention these off-site servers without sworn affidavits,” Mitchell told TheDC. “They meant that I was trying to testify to the judge without bringing in witnesses with sworn affidavits.”

Mitchell’s motion to get an independent forensic examiner was denied. The IRS’ internal investigation never headed to West Virginia, and the Treasury inspector general’s investigation managed to find a pertinent tape in West Virginia a mere two weeks before last Thursday’s House Oversight hearing. One of the IRS employees tasked with finding data on Lerner’s crashed hard drive was legally blind.

Mitchell’s statement about the off-site servers was clear as day, according to court transcripts obtained by TheDC.

“I’m advised that the IRS maintains servers that are in different states in different locations and that IRS employees are advised that their emails are never lost,” Mitchell said in court, according to the transcripts.

“That’s what I’ve been told as far as my emails here,” the court replied.

“And I have had individuals who worked with, for the IRS from all across the country who have communicated that to me,” Mitchell continued. “And they say — I hear from government employees, retired and active, who say what is being said is not possible. It is not plausible and it is contrary to what we are told as employees of the IRS.”

Mitchell requested “the opportunity to at least have some expert look at whether the perimeters of the investigation are complete and … will fully cover all of the potential ways or places in which this investigation should look or take into consideration.”

But the email tapes sat there in West Virginia, alone and unexamined.

DOJ did not return a request for comment for this report.

As TheDC reported, the IRS fired its email-storage contractor Sonasoft just weeks after Lerner’s email-deleting computer crash.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: irs; irsscandal; lerner

1 posted on 03/03/2015 8:18:02 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Some people need to go to prison over this crap.


2 posted on 03/03/2015 8:20:15 AM PST by Crim (Palin / West '16)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

There was also a story about the DOJ having a Legally Blind person check Lois Lerner’s emails ,LOL


3 posted on 03/03/2015 8:23:59 AM PST by molson209 (Blank)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

And the corruption continues. Must be getting close to the time we rid ourselves of this filth. Republicans, weak sniveling cowards, Democrats, lying, hypocritical, closet communists all. This country has completely lost it’s way to career politicians who have only gaining more money and it is never enough.


4 posted on 03/03/2015 8:28:23 AM PST by JayAr36 (Republicans. When you compromise with evil, EVIL wins.)
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To: molson209

Executive Branch = corrupt
Legislative Branch = incompetent (with a dash of corruption thrown in)
Judicial Branch = senile (also with a dash of corruption)

Where to turn?


5 posted on 03/03/2015 8:32:46 AM PST by tgusa
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To: JayAr36

What happened to the old Nixon “obstruction of JUSTICE”?


6 posted on 03/03/2015 8:34:27 AM PST by iowacornman (Peter King Sucks)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
could not even discuss the existence of the storage facilities in her capacity as a lawyer.

Old mines in Butler County, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. A high security Federal archived document storage facility. Reportedly the "secure, undisclosed location" to which Dick Cheney went on 9-11. Everyone in the area knows of it's existence (though weird things do start to happen to your GPS as you approach it by car)

The portions of the mine that are not reserved for government archives are used to grow mushrooms. Ironic.


7 posted on 03/03/2015 8:36:32 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: molson209

What is said....because someone asked “who” was tasked with the original search effort...what their credentials were, and noted that the person was certified by a blind-training center, which seemed odd. So, it led onto the person being noted as vision impaired....which might mean blind or simply requires extra-large screens.

I hate to suggest it...but the justice department might go out and hire an entire IT division...just with deaf, dumb or blind folks to handle cases like this.


8 posted on 03/03/2015 8:37:23 AM PST by pepsionice
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Corrupt Eric Holder has refused to enforce the law in many situations for a very long time now ...

9 posted on 03/03/2015 8:40:58 AM PST by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: tgusa
Executive Branch = corrupt

Legislative Branch = incompetent (with a dash of corruption thrown in)

Judicial Branch = senile (also with a dash of corruption)

Where to turn?

It was originally intended to be the press. But they are just the propaganda arm of the corrupt executive.

10 posted on 03/03/2015 8:42:41 AM PST by henkster (Do I really need a sarcasm tag?)
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To: henkster

And the internet is in process of being silenced.


11 posted on 03/03/2015 8:44:36 AM PST by tgusa
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To: tgusa

Yep. The communists have built a monolithic state-controlled entertainment/information/education propaganda complex that the editors of Pravda never dreamed of.


12 posted on 03/03/2015 8:47:58 AM PST by henkster (Do I really need a sarcasm tag?)
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To: tgusa

“Where to turn?”

Look in the mirror, which is what we should all be doing. It’s up to “We the People” not “Us the Government” to fix this.

Start with a national petition for term limits and litmus test it for every candidate.


13 posted on 03/03/2015 8:51:29 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Islam is the military wing of the Communist party.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Scooter Libby went to prison for far less.

Holder. Lerner. The entire rats nest of Marxists should be prosecuted to the full extent of whatever laws remain in our once great Republic.


14 posted on 03/03/2015 8:56:02 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Seems any tough Senate would not Schedule a vote on the AG ?


15 posted on 03/03/2015 9:02:04 AM PST by scooby321
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The information in this article is disgusting, but not surprising.


16 posted on 03/03/2015 10:54:17 AM PST by grundle
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
The inmates are running the asylum.
The morons are running academia.
The criminals are running the Department of Justice.

17 posted on 03/03/2015 6:42:44 PM PST by Amagi (Lenin: "Socialized Medicine is the Keystone to the Arch of the Socialist State.")
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